This forum is for questions and support pertaining to mental health issues such as: Anger, Dementia, Depression, Family Problems, Memory Problems, Personality Disorders, Phobias, Schizophrenia, Transitions and Work Problems.

For the past one and half years i have been having problems with chronic daily headaches. Also in the last seven months ive been getting abdominal pain in my upper left abdomen just under my left rib cage which is becoming more frequent and my appetite is starting to suffer because my stomach always feel sore and sort of full up even if ive not eaten. i also get acid reflux from hell which is not relieved by antacids or milk like it used to be. I also have been suffering from fatigue and daytime sleepiness because i will have periods where i feel so overwhelmingly drowsy and just cant keep my eyes open.

Anyway, recently ive also been having occassional episodes of phantom smells. Basically i will be sat on the couch and out of nowhere will smell burnt rubber. Its always burnt rubber. I can never find anything burning and it only tends to last for a few minutes at most at a time.

The drs say my headaches, fatigue and stomach pain are being caused by anxiety and depression (i say it feels nothing like anxiety and depression as ive had such issues on and off for 14 years plus and its never presented like this before, it feels nothing like the anxiety and depression im used to at at all) and im wondering if the phantom smell is linked to headaches and fatigue etc.

Other odd symptoms i get include feeling confused, dizziness, nausea, and visual disturbances including blue blobs of light that appear in my feild of vision for a few seconds, floaters, fairy lights, episodes of dim vision (everything looks really dim) or what i call vivid vision (colours look really vibrant and vivid so red will look really red etc). A feeling of deja vu also occurs a lot and is so strong that it is often accompanied with a feeling of nausea and intense fear and recently im getting a lot of muscle twitches/spasms in my right hand and jaw. They are always on the same side.

You have received some good advice from other members. the only thing I would add has to do with the smells. When a specific smell like that happens, it is often triggered by a specific part of the brain, either by a seizure type reaction or because of some pressure on that part of the brain. I would ask your doctor about more extensive brain tests to find out. That is the main physical factor to consider. If that turns out negative, then I suggest you go to my website at www. shrinkyourself.com, and enrol in the program. Here is why. That is an inexpensive way of exploring what is going on in your mind, and it a way to lose weight and keep it off. If you don't do that, then see a therapist to investigate the same.

I just wanted to add that the drs did one routine blood test and a CT scan of my head a year ago and all came back normal except for a mildly elevated white cell count which they said was due to a 'possible viral infection'. When the symptoms didnt go away, they said it cant be viral as a virus doesnt last that long and said it must be anxiety.

No other tests were performed.

Treatments for anxiety/depression are not working ie relaxation doesnt help and neither do anti depressants apart from which im not consciously aware of feeling depressed other than feeling fed up with feeling ill a lot of the time. I feel generally unwell even when im in a good or relaxed mood, Its not congruent with my mood at all and the its getting worse as as time goes on im just developing new symptoms instead of getting better.

Thankyou for the reply, i was considering seeing a different dr as i have also had trouble losing weight recently. I am overweight because ive been gaining it at speed lately, but when i said 'Ive been trying to lose some weight incase my fatigue etc is being caused by my excess weight but the weight wont come off' my dr immediately assumed that i wasnt motivated to diet and rattled on about how with depression you can find it difficult to motivate yourself to do things.

The truth of the matter is, is that i had been on a calorie controlled diet for over 2 months, and when i said the weight wont shift, i meant the weight wont shift, not that i couldnt motivate myself to diet. Admittedly after 8 weeks of failed dieting i did give up and head for macdonalds but any human being would ya know?

The diet i was using has worked for me in the past and ive never had trouble losing weight before. Neither have i ever been as heavey as i am now. I can gain weight at speed (sometimes over half a stone a week) but i cant lose it.

Thats not depression or anxiety otherwise, as ive had anxiety and depression on and off for over 15 years, i wouldnt have been able to lose weight all through my twenties at times when i gained it.

I will try another diet after xmas, and if it doesnt yeild results, i may pay to see a private dr just to check my thyroid and make sure it is actually working ok. I know my thyriod levels were normal when i had a test a year or so a go, but then i could still lose weight, just more slowly tan normal. How can i be sure that my thyriod hormone levels were not dropping back then but just had not yet dropped down to below normal levels?

Im very sensitive to hormonal changes in my body so i may have noticed them dropping even if they were not below normal levels at the time. Ive always lost weight quite easily until a year and half or so ago and i tended to gain it at a much much slower rate as well. My metabolism has definately changed for some reason, i just dont know why.

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